Oh, My Goddess and its Aftermath
by JustEs
Summary: The start of No Greater Love, Phoebe's letter telling her nephew about that mysterious Whitelighter from the future. In Chap 25, posted May 10th, Rori's certain that Chris wanted her and her parents to die during the demon attack. Did he, and if so, why?
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Notes**: Those of you who have read my "I Dream of Phoebe...and its Aftermath" and/or "Epilogue to the Courtship of Wyatt's Father" know what this is all about. For those of you who don't, during S7, I came up with an idea. I'd do a novelization of S6, but include scenes from fanfics that I felt should have been part of the season. I then decided to do it as a letter written by Phoebe to her nephew Chris, telling him all about that mysterious whitelighter from the future, Chris Perry!_

_Well, I wrote and got the permission from a number of authors to use their ideas, Two of my best online friends, Aurora Nightstar (Aurora) and scififantasychic (Scifi), agreed to help me and although we spent several months trying to hash all of the stories and the episodes together to make one large, elaborate epic of the Chris story-arc, it didn't go quite as well as planned, perhaps because we had bitten off more than we could chew. _

_But I still liked a lot of what we wrote and have been sharing pieces with all of you. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the one who someday will help me finish it!_

_Also, most of "No Greater Love..." is set in the universe Scifi created with her own fanfics, and assumes that her own novel, "The Witch and The Assassin", is the true story of Chris' past. I count this fic as a sequel to hers. If you haven't read "The Witch and The Assassin" yet, parts of "No Greater Love..." may not make as much sense as it would if you had, so I thought that anyone who has not yet read this wonderful fanfic should have a chance! I posted the link in my profile. If the Charmed Sons spin-off was going to be based on Chris' unchanged past rather than his changed future as I hope it will (I want it to be just like Twin-Sword's "Destined: The Charmed Sons" virtual series--you can find the link in her profile!), I'd want it to be based on Scifi's fic!_

_On a purely practical note, keep in mind that Scifi wrote "The Witch and The Assassin" and the other fics that helped form her universe and that work as backstory for my novel during S6 and the summer following that season. Therefore Scifi had to come up with husbands and kids for Phoebe and Paige that do not coincide with what the show has come up with, and we used those names while trying to write our novel. Once we saw how "Charmed" was handling S7 and S8, specifically how they were handling references to Chris and Wyatt, we decided to totally ignore both seasons, so you can assume that S7 and S8 never happened (if you don't already do that!)._

**DISCLAIMER:**

I don't own any characters from "Charmed"--they are all owned by Spelling Productions and the former WB, now the CW. This story was not written for sale, but is meant only for the visitors to fanfic sites. Most of the plot points come directly from episodes of the sixth season of "Charmed" (with many thanks to the writers of the spoilers at If you read anything that's different than the way it was shown during the actual episode, it means that the script was changed after the spoilers were released) and ignores all episodes of the seventh and eighth seasons.

However, this story is also based on the fanfiction, "The Ties that Bind", written by Scifiantasychic, used with her permission. Specifically, the characters of Jonathan, Kit, Cassie, David and Helen all belong to Scififantasychic and are all used with her permission.

Rori, although based on Aurora Nightstar's Paris in her stories, "The Family Curse" and "Three Powers of Wyatt", is my own character.

This fic is dedicated with a lot of thanks and a lot of love to both Scifi and Aurora!

_**NO GREATER LOVE...**_

by Esmeralda

**PART ONE: OH, MY GODDESS!...AND ITS AFTERMATH**

Based on the scripts written by Krista Vernoff, Curtis Kheel (Part 1)

and Daniel Cerone (Part 2),

"The Ties That Bind", written by scififantasychic

and "Rori's Story"

, written by Esmeralda, Aurora Nightstar and sciffantasychic

**CHAPTER ONE**

Chris! This is your Aunt Phoebe writing to you. Understand something right off the bat, Chris! I'm going to tell you something that your mom does not want you to know, something she made your Aunt Paige and me promise to never tell. I understand why she doesn't want you to know, Chris--she wants you and Wyatt to have as normal a life as is possible for children of the Charmed Ones to have, the same thing I want for my own daughters, your cousins, Kit and Cassie, and that I know your Aunt Paige wants for her little Helen. But after what happened today, I knew I just had to.

Chris, Cassie told me everything that happened. She told me how she followed you to the underworld after she got that premonition about you being in trouble, even after you insisted she didn't, how she got her cousin Helen to orb them to you, and how they got caught by the demon you were spying on. You came out of hiding to try to save her, even though you knew the odds were against you. You fought them hard trying to protect her. Your big brother Wyatt came in and saved the day. He got rid of the demon and healed both Cassie and Helen.

After everyone got back safely, I couldn't believe how much one little comment you made hurt my little girl. She came to me, crying. "How can I become as powerful as Wyatt?"

So I told her, "You can't, sweetie. He was born on a very special day. That's why he's the Twice-Blessed Witch. You're special, too, but you'll never have the powers he has."

I didn't need my empathy power to realize how hurt she was. I touched her, hoping to get a vision of what had happened and I did. Chris, she thanked you for helping to save her, and you told her, "What did I do? Wyatt is the one who got rid of the demons, Wyatt is the one who healed you. Wyatt is the one with all the powers; he is the one who is special."

Chris, she took your words to mean that she isn't special because she is not as powerful as Wyatt. I know you well enough to know you did not mean she isn't special. You meant _you_ are not!! I would like you to see just how wrong you are.

Chris, as the youngest of the original Charmed Ones, and the only one with a non-active power, I know what it's like to be jealous and feel inferior to the other members. Your powers are nothing to sneeze at, Chris, but compared to Wyatt, the Twice-Blessed Child who's now the Twice-Blessed Witch, I can understand how you feel! You've put yourself down all your life when you compare yourself with him, and I've finally had it!

Please, Chris, don't try to tell me you don't feel this way--yes, you can block against my empathy, but not completely! And you have no reason to feel that way! If you but knew! Why, if it weren't for you..., but that's getting way ahead of myself.

I once wrote your mother a letter like this, and she told me that had I not, she and your father would have probably never stayed together all this time, so I'm going to do the same thing for you, that I did for her. Just like that letter, I'm going to hide this in a place where I know you'll find it and your parents and brother won't. I hope that you will find it when the time is right, the way your mother found hers.

Remember, Chris--you can not let anyone else know that I've told you! If you don't think you can keep this secret, Chris, then, please, rip this up right now! Don't read another word!

OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can tell you. This takes place before you were even born, Chris, before you were even conceived, when Wyatt wasn't even a year old yet. Your dad was still our Whitelighter, but he and your mom were having the typical problems a couple has after having their first baby, complicated by things Charmed.

Actually, all of us Charmed Ones were having problems with love. Your Aunt Paige had run into problems with a guy who lied about being married, and she was now turning into a guy-hater. And I can now admit that since we vanquished Cole, a man who despite being half-demon still loved me and understood me better than anyone, I was looking for love in every guy I found, with no lasting success, until I met your Uncle Jonathan, who changed me from a not-so-nice person into the aunt you know by simply loving me.

Paige's problems and mine were emphasized when we were at P3, checking out guys, trying to talk them into being part of the celebrity auction that the Bay Mirror was sponsoring. I was doing it by turning on all my charms and flirting, telling them that if they signed up, they just might win a date with me, while Paige kept showing no interest in them, but kept discussing these weird dreams she kept having. Obviously my method was working better and when I called Paige on it, she admitted that she was off, that those dreams she'd been having of ancient wars and fire and brimstone was driving her nuts. I couldn't help wondering if she was getting some sort of goddess-complex and was thinking she was causing all the horrendously hot weather we'd been having, so strange for San Francisco. It was amazing that Piper hadn't grumbled more about us not being able to fix the air conditioning thanks to the huge phone bills I was ringing up with my then-boyfriend, the owner of the paper, Jason Dean, who was in Hong Kong. But then I understood--Baby Wyatt was sleeping the whole night long, putting a lot less pressure on her and Leo, something I know you now understand, nephew mine, even if you don't want to think about your folks that way. Actually Piper's life was pretty good right then, which, when you're a Charmed One, means that it's about to change!!


	2. Chapter 2 & 3

**CHAPTER TWO**

A few days later, I was back at P3, helping Elise, my then-boss at the paper, set up for the auction. I was missing Jason dreadfully and Elise thought maybe I should actually bid on a bachelor or two then tell her all about my date! Looking at some of the hunky guys roaming around, I was seriously considering taking her up on her offer, when I nearly dropped my teeth! _Your Aunt Paige orbed in!_ Right into P3 with all those people around! I couldn't believe it! We've always been so careful about not exposing our magic, especially after what it did to your Aunt Prue!

When I called Paige on it, she apologized, but hurriedly explained that something really big was up and I should put on the warm coat she'd brought along, because we were going _now!_ Nephew mine, I barely had my arms into that coat when I felt the tingle that meant we were orbing and next thing I knew, I was no longer boiling hot--I was freezing cold!

We were up in some mountain range or another with snow and wind and everything! Just about the time I started grumbling, she spotted some scorch marks. Chris, your Aunt Paige wanted me to try to get a premonition off those marks when she hadn't even brought me any gloves! But I did anyway, risking frostbite, I'll have you know, and saw two very huge people coming out from the ice-cold mountain! Paige was certain that it all had something to do with all of her strange dreams, and again I began wondering about my baby sister!

We later tried to find those very large people in the Book of Shadows, when Leo orbed in, telling us that a Whitelighter was missing! I sadly had to admit that Paige was right and I better drop out of the auction, while Leo thought he and Piper should drop out of marriage counseling (yeah, that's how badly it had gotten! Had they separated or divorced, we never would've had _you!),_ before Leo orbed back Up There.

When he got back, he was very concerned--the Elders also thought something big was up, but wouldn't even tell Leo what it was! Now _that's_ scary! But whatever it was, it was big enough and bad enough that they wanted all Whitelighters to stop orbing once Leo had returned to us--that whatever it was, the threat could follow orb signatures! That was enough to scare all of us, especially when Paige found our two very huge people in the Book of Shadows--the Titans! The very ones that the ancient Greeks used to base their mythology--the ones that their ancient gods beat by trapping them in that ice mountain that I saw them break out of!

But why would they go after Whitelighters? We figured it was must be because they needed healing or something. We knew we'd have to vanquish them, so Paige put together the strongest, deadliest potion she possibly could, then handed one vial of potion to me, while keeping one for herself.

When I wanted to know how we'd find the Titans, she figured that there was just one way to do that--bring them to us! I wanted to know how to do that, and she figured that was simple--she'd just orb and they could follow her signature. I always wondered about your other aunt, nephew mine. Now I _knew _she was nuts!

**CHAPTER THREE**

_A/N: This chapter is based on Scifi's "The Ties that Bind". If you want to read "The Ties That Bind", check out scififantasychic's homepage! Due to the size of both this and the previous chapter, I decided to post both of them together._

If only we knew then what we would find out much, much later. Not too far away from us, someone was eavesdropping on our conversation by magic, a witch who had been doing that off and on for a good couple of months, ever since he walked through a portal from the future. He wanted to know everything about us before he made himself known, but once the weather started changing, he knew the time was coming up soon, so he'd kept a close ear on our conversations. Hearing us talk about the Titans told him that his moment was coming up fast.

Just the night before he'd had a horrible nightmare, a nightmare that reminded him of why he was doing that--a reason that I'll tell you all about later, nephew mine, along with describing the nightmare. But he'd also found out that a guy who he thought he was helping had used his words to justify killing his own wife, almost killing his children, and then attempting suicide! Well, that someone was really beating himself up over what a terrible angel he was.

Right at that moment he heard me and Paige talking, and knew that his moment was popping up much quicker than he thought it would. But how could he do what he knew he had to do when he was feeling the way he was feeling? What would you do in that situation, nephew mine? I don't know about you, but I probably would've done exactly what this guy did--cast a spell on myself and make all those feelings go deep inside where no one can even guess that I'm feeling them, so that I would look calm, in charge, knowing what I'm doing, even if I felt anything but! And that's exactly what this guy did.


	3. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Even while I tried to talk Paige out of doing it, she orbed out and orbed right back in, followed by some earthquake-type rumbling, which heralded the arrival of one of those big huge people, a big, huge woman dressed in a Greek-type toga, holding a big, huge spear! Both Paige and I threw our vials at her, but they had absolutely no effect!! Instead the big, huge woman looked at me, and I went flying across the wall, hitting my head. Then just as she turned towards Paige, a very cute, but very young-looking black-haired guy suddenly orbed right in front of me, telling me not to look the Titan in the eye, then threw a bunch of vials at her himself. They didn't have much effect either, but it did make Ms. Titan give up, as she vanished into thin air.

The cute young guy helped me up, wanting to make sure that I was okay. I admitted that I was, but when I turned to look at Paige, I gasped. Oh, nephew mine, where your aunt had stood was now a stone statue, a stone statue that looked just like Paige! The cute young guy tried to convince me that she was okay, well, not okay, but at least she was still alive, but I wasn't so sure and neither was Piper when she walked into the attic a moment later. He shrugged and told us not to worry, that it happened all the time in his own time, and when Piper demanded that he tell us who and what he was, he said his name was Chris Perry and he was from the future. Yep, nephew mine, this guy is the reason why you're named Chris, well, him and Leo's dad. When Piper wanted to know whether he was friend or foe, I told her I wasn't sure yet.

Well Chris Perry was insulted--after all, he'd just saved Paige, hadn't he. He had?? He called turning her into a statue saving her? That's when he told us that Paige wasn't fated to be turned into stone that day--she was fated to die, so Ms. Titan could steal her Whitelighter powers, after she turned me into stone when I'd look her in the eye and before Piper showed up. That would also have broken the Power of Three. He insisted that he was from a future that we didn't want to see and that he was trying to change.

That made both Piper and me suspicious--we'd seen before what can happen when you try to change the future—you _know_ how often we berate you kids for even _thinking_ about doing such a thing! --and we wanted to know who sent him. That was the first time we heard the line that was going to drive us crazy for the next year--"I can't tell you that," and when we asked, "Why?" we heard the other line we'd learn to hate--"Future consequences." Only thing he was willing to tell us was that had he not shown up, Paige would've been the Titans' third Whitelighter victim.

Third? We only knew about one. That's when Leo orbed in, telling us about the second Whitelighter victim, and we had to admit that maybe this guy did know what he was talking about, but it didn't mean we had to trust him--at least not quite yet! I noticed that when Leo orbed in, the new Whitelighter folded his arms and glared at Leo, as if he didn't like him. I shook my head, telling myself that I must be seeing things—as you well know, nephew mine, everyone loves Leo!!

Before we could tell Leo who this new guy was, suddenly we heard a crash and when we went downstairs, there were all the magical creatures we'd met in the last year or so, all wanting the Charmed Ones to save them! As usual, Piper took over, delegating jobs (sounds familiar, right, nephew mine?), wanting me to keep an eye on our guests, Leo to keep an eye on the Elf Nanny--who Piper had fired awhile back, but who now wanted to go take care of Baby Wyatt--while we took care of the Titans (or, at least, tried to!)--while Chris Perry should go check with the Elders--he _was_ a Whitelighter after all--but Chris Perry wasn't even there! That's when we realized that he had never followed us downstairs, that he was still up in the attic--with the Book _and_ your still-frozen Aunt Paige! At that your mother ran upstairs, determined to keep an eye on "Future Boy".

_Okay, now that you've read it, push the little review button and let me know what you think!_


	4. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Later Piper told us that when she entered the Attic, Chris Perry was paging through the Book, searching for ways to free Paige. Piper insisted that he get away from the Book, but he said he'd looked through it many times and after all, the Book was letting him, so he must be good, right? Piper wasn't sure and neither were the rest of us when she told us about this. Then he slammed the Book shut, growling that there was nothing in there that would help--that the only way to save Paige and vanquish the Titans was by doing it the way the ancients did it--having the Elders infuse mortals with some very, very strong magic, among the strongest magic ever, much stronger than even the magic we Charmed Ones possessed! Now for sure we all thought he was nuts! That much power could not be good for anyone!

But that suddenly helped Piper realize who the Titans were truly after--people a lot more powerful than we Charmed Ones or the Whitelighters! The only ones who could infuse mortals with the power to vanquish the Titans--the Elders! Piper told Leo to orb Up There and warn them, _quick_, but to also get back, _quick_, and to be careful!

Well, while we waited for him to come back--because he _didn't_ come back quickly-- we tried to use some of the magical folks to free Paige, but no such luck.

About that time, I'd just about had it. I marched over to young Mr. Perry and demanded that he tell us why he didn't tell us about the Titans being after the Elders. He just rolled his eyes and told us that we'd have to figure out some stuff for ourselves. That just pissed me off--why wait for us to figure things off when it just made things worse? I mean, yeah, the Elders have been a pain in the rear once in awhile, but they have also warned us of bad things many times and do serve a useful purpose. But Chris Perry truly didn't seem to care what happened to them; he just kept that infuriating smirk on his face.

But before I could call him on it, Piper walked in, very upset, the most upset I'd ever seen Piper, even more than when Prue died. She'd been calling Leo for over an hour, but he hadn't answered, something that had never happened before. She demanded that Chris tell her what was up, but when he insisted that he had no idea, she refused to believe him. So he finally admitted that he might know, but if he was right, Leo might need some serious alone-time. That only angered Piper more, demanding that he "cut the cryptic crap." She wanted him to go fetch Leo and bring him back _now_! He finally agreed, but also told us to work on freeing Paige, since we'd need her soon, then he orbed out. I was still pissed--what wasn't he telling us _now_??

Piper told me that he better come back with Leo or she was going to blow his ass right back to the future, orbs and all! So I told her to go play with Baby Wyatt and I'd care of everything.

I finally got Piper to leave, and I knew it was time to help my other sister--your stone-cold aunt! So I round up some more of the magical folks and finally with their help, we freed Paige. After I updated her, she got the whole Titan thing, but not the whole Chris Perry thing--neither did I! Not one bit! Oh, if only we'd known then what we know now!


	5. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

Anyway, Paige and I went downstairs and there we found Piper sitting on the living-room couch, still in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. . Although she was happy to see Paige okay again, she was positive that Leo wasn't coming back--that line of Chris' about Leo having to needing some alone-time absolutely terrifed her.

Suddenly all of the magical creatures came in. They informed us that they had to leave, _now._ When we asked why, they informed us that all of the Elders were sending out distress calls, so the creatures had to go save them. Save them? From who or what, and what about us. They smiled benevolently at us, telling us that they were going to leave the Elf Nanny behind to take care of Baby Wyatt while we, the mighty Charmed Ones, battled the Titans.

While we _what?!_ Who said anything about us battling the Titans? Piper said that Chris had, and she began yelling for Leo again. She yelled and yelled, but no sign of Leo.

Now Paige and I began to panic, too, so we joined in the yelling. But again, no sign of Leo.

Finally orbs appeared, and we were so relieved, but when they became a person, it wasn't Leo, it was Chris Perry, and we all came close to blowing our tops. We wanted _Leo,_ not this newcomer who wouldn't tell us a darn thing!.. He insisted that Leo was okay, and then, with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face that irritated the tar out of me, he informed us that, yes, we _were_ going to battle the Titans.

We wanted to know what exactly he meant by that, when suddenly we found out--with a bright flash, we found ourselves all dressed in Greek costumes, complete with beautiful fancy hairstyles (naturally, I was a blonde--why do I always end up being a blonde whenever we get stuck in these weird costumes??? As you well know, nephew mine, for whatever reason, that just keeps right on happening!).

Now we knew Chris Perry was nuts--he wanted us to fight the most powerful creatures we'd ever faced--people who scared_ the_ _Elders_, for Pete's sake, something not even _the Source of all Evil_ had managed to do--dressed for a frickin' frackin' costume party???


	6. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

With that same irritating know-it-all smirk on his face, Chris Perry informed us that our outfits weren't costumes--they were symbols of our new powers and positions--we were now goddesses. Well, Paige got very excited about having power, but just as suddenly, she wanted to know _why _she was excited about having power. Chris Perry smirked as he told her that it was because she was now the goddess of war. That excited your aunt even more, and she looked at all of us, especially Chris Perry, wanting to know who wanted to fight--she'd love to get in a fight with _him_, but he quickly backed off.

Well, I was the last person who wanted to fight, as I suddenly realized that I'd a lot rather love than fight, and suddenly Chris Perry was looking a lot older and a lot hotter than he did just a few minutes earlier. When I tried coming onto him, he quickly backed up and put his hands up defensively, telling me that I was now the goddess of love, an idea I admith that I definitely liked!

Nephew mine, can you guess what your mother's reaction towards all this was? I'll bet you can! She immediately declared that she must be the goddess of _sanity_, because she was the only one who found this whole thing ridiculous--and looking back at the way Paige and I were acting, I must admit that now I agree with her, and I'll bet you do, too.

So Chris Perry told her that Leo gave her powers over the earth and its elements, which shocked the tar out of Piper. _Leo_ gave her power?? I interrupted, wanting to know if Chris Perry had a girlfriend in the future. He glared at me, but then pointed out that we also now had drives and urges based on our new positions, but we couldn't let them distract us from focusing on destroying the Titans. He hadn't convinced Piper yet--she insisted that Leo was not in the god-making business, because the Elders forbid it and Leo was a company man, and as you well know, nephew mine, he still is.

I'd still been looking Chris Perry over (I swear, nephew mine, it was just because I was turned into a goddess--all those drives and urges that he'd been talking about were totally taking me over! Really truly!) and still wanted to know how old he was, since in my eyes he now looked like a hunky man rather than a skinny kid.

He continued to ignore me, telling Piper that the Elders _did_ forbid it, but they were dead, or at least most of them were, and he didn't seem in the least bit sorry about it--I couldn't help thinking that his reaction towards their deaths was identical to what Piper's herself would've been! He then pointed out that Leo was taking a huge risk turning us into goddesses and hoping that we didn't lose our humanity, like the Greek gods and goddesses had.

Well your other aunt almost did--she stuck her trident into Chris Perry's shirt, saying since he knew the Elders would be killed when he could've stopped it, so she thought she should castrate him!

My face is bright red as I write this, but just to show you how those urges were affecting me, I thought we should cut something else off--I could find some better uses for that piece she wanted to get rid of!

Chris Perry orbed away and orbed back, telling us to focus, that in his future, _all_ of the Elders were killed and that's why he came back, to give Leo that power so it wouldn't happen again.

Paige wasn't interested--she was having too much fun making lightning shoot from her trident and destroy furniture, while I kept insisting that she should make love, not, well, you know, and I'll admit I must've made everyone else sick with all of my mushy sayings, because I'm now doing it to myself now!!!

Now Piper really really got frustrated--this was Leo's big plan???? Because her sisters couldn't be seen in public, much less...

But those were the wrong words to use--public made me think public auctions and I decided to go check out that bachelor auction at P3 (it was those whims and desires, nephew mine! I swear it!!!) while Paige wanted to go use demons for target practice, and with that, we both vanished, her with a flash of lightning and me with a flash of flowers and pretty music, to go use our new powers to do our own thing--the same exact thing that the original Greek gods and goddesses had done--and that had cost every last one of them their humanity!


	7. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Later Piper told us that Chris Perry told her to go after us, but she thought he should--after all, she now realized that all of this was _his _big plan, not_ Leo's_ (your mother was always a very smart girl!), so he could just go clean up his own mess!! And when Chris Perry told her that her job was to provide balance, she told him that he almost sounded like a Whitelighter, and it was too bad we already had one. And if that Whitelighter wanted her to do something, he could just come down and tell her himself! Then she yelled up at Heaven, "Do you hear that?"

That got Chris Perry mad. He insisted that if she really wanted Leo, she better vanquish the Titans, or she'd live in a world of darkness--his world.

Meanwhile, I was walking into the auction, thrilled by how my newfound charisma was making me the absolute belle of the ball (OK--I admit it--I liked it!! Is that so wrong??) I actually told them that I was going to bid myself off, and, oh, nephew mine, you should've seen the bids I got!!! Those guys really wanted me!! Okay, they didn't want me, they wanted the goddess of love, but, oh, man, was I enjoying it while I could!!!

At first Elise was shocked, until she heard those bids, and then she went along with them. As I happily put it, "There's plenty to go around!" And, yes, my face is beet-red, even as I write that!! Please make sure your Uncle Jonathan never sees this! Please!!

Meanwhile, as I was to later find out, Paige was having fun turning demons into her personal slaves. Suddenly a very angry Piper appeared. Paige told her she was building an army of demons--what better way to beat the Titans? Piper disagreed and made all the demons scoot. But they refused to obey anyone but Paige. Paige thought that rather than studying magic, she should've been busy becoming a general. Well, that thoroughly pissed off Piper, and she used her own powers to make the earth quake, and the terrified demons vanished. Paige was upset that she no longer had followers, but Piper told her that we couldn't have followers--we'd have to do this ourselves, and she better come back to the Manor before she got pissed at _her_! That was enough to scare even the goddess of war and Paige obeyed, following her back to the Manor, where Piper grabbed the trident and put it away, insisting that she didn't want Paige using it in the house.

Just about then, the Elf Nanny showed up, pushing Baby Wyatt in his stroller, telling Piper that a house of ill-repute was no place to raise a child. When they wanted to know what she meant, she pointed to the conservatory, where the goddess of love (me!) was holding court with all the guys I won at the auction. I'll admit I was saying more and more barfy lines, enough to gag _me_ with a steam shovel, as I think of them now!! Just remember, nephew mine, everything I was doing back then was just because I was under the influence of divinity--I swear!

Just about then Chris Perry walked in, that ultra-irritating smirk back, wanting to know what's going on--goddesses gone wild? He was about ready to do something about it, but Piper took over--blowing all of my faithful subjects out into the foyer and in fear, they all took off.

Chris Perry thought that was more like it! Piper glared at _him_, then told me and Paige that it was morality-check time, reminding us of what happened to the Greeks gods and goddesses when they tried to act that way. Well, nephew mine, you know your aunt--unlike your mother and your other aunt, I've never been much of a fast learner. I kept right on flirting with Chris Perry, who still refused all of my advances--he actually seemed disgusted by the goddess of love! Hey, it was _his_ plan--_he_ helped make me that way!

Just about when I thought Piper was going to kill _me_, there was suddenly a jingle. But weren't the Elders all dead?! Chris Perry smirked again--Leo isn't! _Leo?_ Our Whitelighter could _jingle_??? Chris Perry warned that Leo was saying that an Elder was under attack. Even as we tried to wrap our minds around the idea that Leo could warn Chris Perry, the same way that the Elders always warned Leo, we knew what we had to do. Time for us to go battle the Titans!!


	8. Chapter 9

_A/N I had a complaint that Phoebe calls Chris "nephew mine" too much. This was done on purpose in order to help you, my reader, keep the Chris who is reading this letter separate from the Chris in the letter. Although, of course, both Chrisses are the same person, because they've lived totally different lives, they're two different characters. But if this bothers enough other readers, I can most definitely change it. So if it bothers you, please let me know!_

**CHAPTER NINE**

Chris Perry showed us where to go and we popped in, finding two of the magical forces--a leprechaun and a dwarf--trying to save the Elder as they yelled at this Titan, the biggest, strongest, meanest-looking guy you ever saw--obviously the Titan leader--that they beat him before and would again. Big Meannie told them that their numbers were dwindling and that soon all of the Elders would be dead.

We announced that we didn't think so. But when we tried to battle the big brute, no such luck, and we ended up orbing out with the Elder, landing in a sewer where the remaining Elders were hiding. That's when we realized that despite being goddesses, we still weren't as all-powerful as we thought we were. Talking with the Elder we just saved (while, yes, I flirted with him--oh, you can't tell your Uncle Jonathan about this, nephew mine, you just can't!), we found out that Leo had become a folk hero, because he had figured how to save the other Elders. That upset Piper--she didn't like getting all this info second-hand--she wanted Leo _**now!**_ Leo promptly jingled, but that wasn't good enough for Piper, who used an earthquake to shake the whole sewer! Leo still didn't show. I thought maybe Leo was still busy saving the world, giving us time to vanquish the Titans. Paige pointed out that her power didn't do much against Big Meannie. So I grinned at both of them, deciding to try out _my_ power.

Back at the Manor, I used all of my charms and wiles on another male Titan, one not as big or as dangerous-looking as Big Meannie, although I kept Chris Perry' advice in mind and kept my eyes averted from his, so he couldn't turn me into stone. Just when I thought I had him, Big Meannie himself showed up, wanting to know what was going on. I tried to sic my new disciple on him, but he told his leader that he was just playing along until Cronus showed up. Ah, so Big Meannie's name was Cronus!

I was very disappointed that my powers hadn't worked, but forgot about that when they suddenly tried to attack me! Just when I thought I was a goner, Paige walked in, used her own power, and they vanished--vanished, not vanquished.

That's when we realized that we simply could not do this without Leo. But when we tried to get him to come, we got Chris Perry instead and were very disappointed. I was getting so frustrated at seeing Chris Perry orb in each time I wanted to see Leo orb in that I was about to love him to death, while Paige looked like she wanted to put her original plan in action, and Piper, well, I don't even want to think what Piper wanted to do to him at that point!

Paige and I told him that every plan we came up with ended the same way--with our deaths--and that we really needed Leo. Chris insisted that he couldn't bring Leo back and then wanted to know why we needed him so badly--we were the Charmed Ones, couldn't we do this on our own?

I smiled as I told him that that Leo always gives me the confidence I need to know that I can do what I have to do--and that's still true to this day. Big Meannie and the other two had shook my confidence badly and I needed Leo's help.

It's different for Paige--Leo helps her remember her training and helps her focus. She was so upset, she couldn't focus and needed Leo's calming influence.

Despite that, Chris still refused.

So Paige demanded that if the Elders had assigned him to us as our Whitelighter, then it was about time for Chris to start acting like our Whitelighter and do the same thing for us that Leo always did, but when he tried, he failed miserably, mainly because he was just so darn impatient! I was more certain than ever that we could not do this; Paige's focus was totally gone. Frustrated, Chris finally admitted that he needed help, but he still didn't want to go get Leo; instead he decided to go find Piper to see if she could help to get us to concentrate. As he orbed out, Paige and I exchanged amused glances. We couldn't wait until Piper told us about _this_ conversation!


	9. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER TEN**

Later that night, Paige and I bugged Piper to find out about her conversation with our new Whitelighter, and shaking her head she told us all about it.

She told us that Chris found her in her bedroom, holding Wyatt, telling him she knew how much he missed his Daddy, because she missed him, too. Chris told her that she was needed, and she blew her top that he simply barged into her bedroom without even knocking. Not even taking the time to apologize, he immediately insisted that he needed her to help get her sisters _(Paige and me!) _to concentrate. She found this funny--the guy who thinks he knows everything was running out of options.

He rolled his eyes and shrugged, saying, well, if she wanted to think that and use it as motivation,_ fine!_ He was just upset because he was watching everything literally go to hell again and he was not able to do a thing to stop it!! He said he understood that we need Leo--he got that, he really did--and then Piper reminded him that Wyatt needed his father, too.

Well, that must not have been the best thing to say, because now he really blew his top, telling her that if she could just forget about missing her husband for a moment—

Not Piper! She told him in no uncertain terms that nothing is more important than family! He glared and informed her her that there was no such thing as family where he comes from, that he had no chance to get to know his parents! Later we were to discover that this was not the truth (but then so were a lot of things he told us that day), but he sure knew how to manipulate Piper, hitting one of her hot buttons!! That would have to be Piper's definition of hell--not knowing who her family was.

But even if she didn't like that idea, he didn't push her button quite as hard as he probably meant to, because she simply pointed out that it wasn't her fault. He shook his head and informed her that it wasn't hers _yet_. Well, that got her good and mad, as he accused him of blaming us, _us!_ for whatever had happened.

He shook his head--he just wants to be sure we got it right this time, which still seemed to insinuate that we had somehow blown it the first time..

Piper glared at him and informed him in no uncertain terms that if he truly wanted that, he better get Leo for us, and she went off to warm Wyatt's bottle.

Much, much later, we were to find out that after she left, Chris Perry went over to stand by Wyatt's crib. Your brother immediately put up his shield. And Chris told him that eventually he'd trust him--eventually we all would. And, nephew mine, I can tell you now that I'm very glad that we didn't find this out for quite awhile--if we had, I don't know if I would've ever trusted him--even now a shiver is going up and down my spine just thinking about it, and thinking what might have happened if his words never came true! We would've wondered who was this guy that our sweet, innocent Wyatt would be afraid of him, and what were his powers that he thought we'd eventually trust him, when we sure didn't then! And we would've been ultra-suspicious of him from then on!

Of course, Paige and I wanted to know what happened when Piper returned to her room with Wyatt's bottle. Chris was no longer there, but suddenly someone orbed in, wearing a robe. Of course, Paige and I knew who it was and so did Piper as soon as he put down his hood--it was Leo. You can imagine how happy Piper was to see him, so glad to know that he was safe.

Leo told her that it was lucky Chris was there. _Chris??_ Yeah, he distracted the Titans, so Leo could come down to us, but we didn't have much time. That's when Piper noticed the white in Leo's hair. Of course, you know why it was there, nephew mine, but Leo didn't--or if he did, he didn't want to admit it and neither did Piper. He figured it must be because he was Up There so long, but when they began to head for the stairs, Elf Nanny walked by and bowed to Leo Piper tried to tell him that it was just Wyatt's father, but she knew better, and so do you.

They walked into the living room, where Paige and I were reading up on the Greek gods, now frightened out of our wits, even more frightened than when we had to battle the Source of All Evil. How could we possibly defeat a guy like Cronus who swallows his own kids alive so they don't overthrow him? We heard the smile in a familar voice as Leo told us that that's just a myth. Shrieking with joy, we ran to hug him as we welcomed him home.

He wanted to know what we had for him, and we made it clear that we had nothing that could defeat the Titans. Piper smiled, saying this pointed out how much our family needed him. But Leo didn't think so. He said it's not because we were goddesses, but rather that we're the Charmed Ones, the greatest force of good known to humankind, infused with the goddess' powers. We smiled--he was doing it again! My confidence was coming back and so was Paige's focus!

Chris Perry simply stood back, crossed his arms defensively and glared at Leo the whole time. I wanted to grin and say, "You better start taking notes, Future Boy! _This _is how to be our Whitelighter!"


	10. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

Leo told Paige she knew how to do it. And just like that, she nodded. She said we'd have to stop just looking like goddesses, and actually declare ourselves gods. But Chris Perry disagreed--we'd lose our humanity, just like the Greek gods.

But Leo smiled and said Chris didn't know us like he did. I'll never forget his words, nephew mine. Since that day, I've thought of them every time we've gone into battle: "You're not the ancient Greeks; you're The Charmed Ones. I didn't give you anything you can't handle. Phoebe, you lost yourself to the darkest love that ever existed and you came back. Of course, you can handle being the goddess of love. Paige, you're the goddess of war because you've been consumed with gaining power but you've never let the power consume you. Piper, is it any wonder I made you the goddess of earth? You are everything that is good and beautiful in this world. The mother of my son" Oh, nephew mine, I'm snuffling even as I write this!!

Piper couldn't believe he really had that much faith in us. Leo smiled, and I remember his next words, too: "Do you really even need to ask that? It's like I've always said, your power comes from your emotions, and right now you need to dig deeper than you ever have before. Whatever motivates you. Your heart, your soul, your darkest fears. Whatever it takes, you need to find that and channel it into power. Power not to capture the Titans, but to destroy them forever." But even as he spoke, suddenly he started to glow, and all of his calm vanished as he became as scared as the rest of us (well, everyone except a smirking Chris Perry!), wondering what was happening to him.

Later, Piper walked into her room to find Leo playing with a giggling Wyatt who was lying in his crib. He swore that he'd never leave his son. That scared Piper, and she wanted to know why he would even consider such a thing, so what's going on? Leo said he wasn't sure (_Ha!_ Leo's no dummy! He just didn't want to admit it!), but Piper was beginning to suspect. (As I said before_, she's_ no dummy either!)

She yelled for Chris, and Leo told him to go ahead and show himself. Chris Perry appeared, declaring that it better be an emergency or he'd lead the Titans right to them. Piper wanted to know what was going on with Leo. Well, he kept being cryptic and Piper kept getting angrier, even when Chris told her that the world needed someone good to watch over it, and does she knows any greater good than Leo? Piper refused to accept that, because Elders don't live on Earth; they don't have families. (See, I told you she's no dummy!) She then turned towards Leo and demanded that Leo tell Chris Perry that he wasn't an Elder and never would be, but Leo was afraid he couldn't do that.

Chris thought she should get back to her sisters--she refused until Leo told Chris he was no Elder, but Chris insisted that she had to get back to her sisters. Piper finally lost it and sent Chris flying. Leo told her that she'd done it--she found her power, now control it; don't let it control her! To tell you the truth, nephew mine, if I were Piper at that point, I think I would've sent Leo flying!

I'm surprised Piper didn't--it shows that Leo was right; she had indeed found the control she needed. Now if she could only help Paige and me!


	11. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Meanwhile, both male Titans had appeared and were throwing Paige and me around, wanting to know where was the Elder who created us. Suddenly your mother appeared, looking more like a goddess than I'd ever seen her, anger, sadness pouring from her. Well, they tried to use their powers on _her_ and Piper told them that "It's not nice to piss off Mother Nature!" (Isn't that a great line??? I was _so_ proud of her for coming up with that!), and after using an earthquake to open a huge hole and with a little nudge from Paige's trident, we did it! We actually vanquished the Titans! Almost as big of an accomplishment as vanquishing the Source of All Evil!

Leo came running downstairs, very proud of us, especially of Piper. He held an urn in his hands. He told us that now it was time to give back our powers. But Piper glared at him, pain and anger still rolling off her, and as the earth shook, she vanished.

Later, amidst rain and thunder and hail outside, inside, Leo used his powers to take back Paige's and my godly powers, and we gladly gave up being goddesses and just went back to being witches

I tried to scry for Piper, but couldn't. Paige thought that Piper was on a major power trip--after all, she destroyed the Titans, something even the Greek gods couldn't do. Chris hoped she didn't lose her humanity, and Leo said that if anyone could do that, it was Piper.

Just then there was a jingle--the Elders needed Leo and were calling, and Leo orbed out. Paige and I couldn't believe it--Leo had just bailed on us--something he'd never done before! Chris rolled his eyes, as if he didn't find it strange at all. He told us that Leo trusted us to find Piper and talk her down before she threw the whole world into chaos. We reminded him who Leo is--Piper's husband. Not any more, Chris insisted with another smirk. The Elders needed Leo to help restore order. He finally admitted that Leo wasn't an Elder yet, but he was on the path.

Well, I lost it. I told him that maybe being an Elder was a good thing in _his_ world (and after all, hadn't he told us that in his world, all the Elders were dead?? How could that possibly be a good thing?), but in ours he's our brother-in-law, our Whitelighter and our friend, so Chris just better get his Whitelighterly-a$$ Up There and tell Leo to get back down here _**now!**_

Just then there was a huge crash. Piper's emotions were getting the worst of her, and the world was going nuts! Paige figured that as a goddess, she'd want to be somewhere up high where she could see the damage she was inflicting, and Paige orbed us to the highest hill looking over San Francisco.

Sure enough, there was Piper, sending out lightning bolt after lightning bolt after lightning bolt, while continuing to make the earth shake. When we tried to talk to her, she warned us to stay away, the look in her eyes warning us that if we didn't, the next lightning bolt would be aimed at _us!_ We reminded her of her family--of Wyatt, who needed his mother, especially now that he had lost his father. But that was the wrong thing to say. With one final glare, Piper vanished!


	12. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

The next day, Paige and I were in the kitchen--Paige making pizza, me on the phone, talking to Elise, trying to come up with a good excuse as to why the auction went so well. After hanging up, I told Paige how much I helped raise and that I might have even gotten a second date with one of the guys. Paige wanted to know what Jason would think. Well, I admitted that I missed Jason a lot, but with a shrug, I pointed out that I couldn't put my life on hold for him, and if he ever got back to San Francisco, we'd see. I still thought (and I'll admit I still think!) being the goddess of love had its perks, which might be why I kept acting like one until I met your Uncle Jonathan--without the sappy sayings, of course!

Not Paige! She'd had it with being a warrior goddess or a super witch. She'd decided that she had let too much slide in order to do that, and she didn't want to, especially not after what we'd just lost. I reminded her that we hadn't lost him--he was still watching over us, but Paige didn't think it was the same thing. Looking back, I'd have to agree with her!

Just then the doorbell rang. It was Darryl and Sheila, there to, what, give their condolences, show their respect? Whatever it was, it was Piper's idea. When they wanted to know how she was doing, adding that she must be devastated, we told her that we weren't sure--Piper wanted to stay with Baby Wyatt all night. Sheila said she wouldn't be surprised if Piper didn't come down for a year.

But Piper didn't stay in her room for a year, Chris--had she, you never would've been conceived, much less born! Just then she came down the stairs, bouncy, smiling, cheerful. We were sure she had flipped her lid! The Morrisses tried to give their sympathy, but Piper smiled happily and insisted that this was a celebration--that Leo got a promotion and we should be happy for him! We should _what_?

Paige reminded her that suppressing emotions wasn't a good idea in our family, but Piper insisted that she' wasn't, and why don't we go eat before Wyatt woke up from his nap. Then she realized that she forgot the baby monitor and actually turned around and _skipped _back upstairs, just as happy and as bouncy as could be!

The Morrisses headed for the dining room, while I told Paige that something was wrong with Piper. Paige thought maybe she'd moved on, but I knew better--Piper doesn't move on; she fights!! .It was almost as if her pain had been taken away. I didn't know who did that, but I also knew that whoever did that did her no favor, because that isn't Piper's way--you know that as well as I do,Chris--Piper doesn't accept; Piper fights! The way she fought when they tried to take Leo away from her before. The way she fought when our big sister Prue was taken from us. Now I was afraid that the Elders had taken away that pain by taking away all of those memories of all those things that she and Leo had gone through, since that's exactly the sort of thing the Elders would do--as you know, They fought your parents' union from the start, because witches and Whitelighters weren't supposed to get together like that.

If I knew then _which_ Elder had done that to Piper, I never would've believed it! Even then I started thinking about writing her that letter.

_A/N: If you recognized this chapter as the end of "Oh, My Goddess!" you're right. The Aftermath starts next chapter, including the introduction of a new character, one who looks just like Prue! But is she truly a cousin as she claims or is she a demon pretending to be Prue as a way to get to the sisters...and Wyatt??!! Chris doesn't remember a Rori Bowen in the future...or does he?_


	13. Chapter 14

_**Note from Es:**__ The rest of this fic is based on one of the few fanfics written specifically to be part of "No Greater Love..." and introduces a new character to the story--Rori--so we just call it "Rori's Story." But I'll let her introduce herself to you during this chapter. She has a very special power, the reason why she became part of the story. _

_Oh, also, if you'd like to read the letter Phoebe wrote to Piper, it's my fanfic "Charmed by Love"._

_Finally, there's something goofy with my PMs so my email notification doesn't work and then they don't stay put in my inbox. Those of you who have sent me one since I started this fic, please resend it, so I can reply!_

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

Well, Chris, a couple weeks passed, and nothing changed. Each day I checked to see if that letter I had written to your mom was still there, and it was. And each day she became more and more cheery, each day happier and prouder about your dad's promotion to Elder, constantly telling us that, of course, he had to stay Up There. After all, that was a lot more important than being with us! I began worrying more and more about her, thinking maybe this was just her messed-up way of mourning. I admit, having a bubbly and chipper Piper running around the house was less depressing than having a moody and snappy Piper, but it just wasn't normal. She smiled _all_ the time! It was creepy.

To top it off, each day, she became more and more Little Miss Susie Homemaker and was more and more irritating to Paige and me. Now, you know your mom has always been constantly on the go, but she was even more energetic with this weird high she was on. If she wasn't cooking, she was cleaning, and if she wasn't cleaning, she was organizing, and if she wasn't organizing, she was preparing for demon attacks, which was good, all things considered. I guess Piper had to be responsible even when she was tripping.

And if _she_ was irritating, then our new Whitelighter, Mr. Chris Perry, was even more so! When we'd least expect it, he'd pop into our lives, wanting us to go off and vanquish some demon. Nephew mine, I think we vanquished more demons in the next two weeks than we had in the last five years! Piper was always there to blow them up, always happy, thinking what fun this was, but, oh, the mess on the carpet! and then off to take care of Wyatt. Whenever Paige and I asked Chris--the other Chris, Chris Perry--why he had us on "demon patrol", he'd give us that same very, _very_ irritating line--"I can't tell you," and when we'd ask, "Why not?", he'd always reply, "Future consequences." Man, I learned to hate those lines!! I mean, sure, he wanted to save his future and wanted to be sure as little as possible was done to change it, so when he'd get back it would be similar to what he left--just better--but c'mon, give me a break already!

Of course, if I'd known then what I know now, I probably would've understood and even agreed with him, but I sure didn't then! I didn't even count him as cute anymore, just an annoying slave driver determined to screw up my life!!

Anyway, Piper was in a cross between organizing and preparing for demons when she called out early one Saturday morning that she was taking Wyatt herb-shopping. She was out the door with him before I could even roll out of bed. I was kind of miffed, too, because she'd woken me from a great dream about a real hot guy and then she left before I could yell at her. On her way out the door, she called out that she going to try out a new herb shop she had read about.

I suppose you can guess what came next, Chris, since we've told you how we found out about Rori and her power of retronition. Yep, that shop that Piper decided to check out just happened to be the one Rori's mother owned. Rori was working weekends as a cashier, and, boy, I bet she didn't know what she was in for when she opened the shop that morning!

I think I'll let you read a bit from Rori's diary now, since she recorded what happened there. Between you and me, Rori was a little weird herself, to have so fanatically kept up her entries. She didn't miss a day, and sometimes she recorded hourly. But I suppose we're all entitled to be weird when we're sixteen.

Speaking of which, nephew mine, I hope you'll keep in mind her age when she wrote these entries. They can be a little gushy, I'm warning you. And please, _please_, don't give Rori a hard time about them. She was very sweet to let me share her private thoughts with you (and me!), so you could know everything that was going on during that time, and I know she's worried about what you'll think. So if you do give her a bad time, I may just have to remind you of some of the embarrassing stuff _you_ did when you were sixteen! And most of what she did was _nothing_ compared to what _you've_ done and you know it! So just think about that, mister, as you read this.

_Why did Mom have to pick today of all days to open up the shop? And will you believe it, she actually made me work! On the day Dad is coming back into town. She knows I hardly get to see him. At least I get to see him tonight. I hope he found something from his dig in Egypt. I love finding out more about history._

_Well, I'm back from the shop and __although I sure grumbled when she decided to make me work, I'll admit I sure am glad Mom forced me to work. You'll never believe what happened!! I'll let you know how important it was--I'm not even going to have supper with Dad tonight!! I've got a lot more important job to do! I've got myself my very own innocent I get to save! My very first! And it's all mine!!!!_

_A woman waited for me as I fussed with the door trying to get the damm lock to open. Jeeze, I thought I was going to break the key. She waited with her son, not at all impatient. She just continued to smile. "It's ok, take your time," I heard her say._

_I finally got the door open. I turned around and saw the woman for the first time. All I could think was Oh my God, is that who I think it is? Her face lit up as she looked at me. "What is it?" I asked her._

_"Nothing, you just look so much like her," the woman answered me smiling even brighter so I could see her pearly-whites. She hugged me smiling. Then it hit me, a retro. No way am I sharing this one with Mom! As always, it only lasted a second of real time, but I don't think I'll ever forget any of it._


	14. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

_What I saw was a little cloudy, and really, really white. The lady was soaking wet and seriously pissed. She was so different from the woman standing before me. _

_"Where is he? Where is Leo?" she demanded of all these gold-robbed people who were wandering around making these annoying clicking, clacking sounds._

_One of the people came to her and removed his hood. Handsome face, warm smile, if only he was a lot younger... _

_"Piper, what are you doing here?" he asked. That told me that I was right about who she is!_

_"How can you do this?" Piper looked like she was about to cry. Definitely nothing like the lady who was hugging me._

_Leo looked around. "Uh, excuse us for a minute." Yeah, from the looks of it, he needed some time alone with her._

_Once the others left, Piper really let him have it. "You asked me to marry you, and I did. You wanted a family, and I gave you a son. And now you want me to watch you just walk away?" God, it was just like watching a tear-jerker movie! Mom would always leave during this kind of scene so I would not see her cry._

_"It's not that simple," Leo answered. _

_"Then make it simple," she demanded, agony in her voice. "Because I'm trying really hard to understand."_

_"Piper, if I had a choice in any of this, I would choose you. I always have." His eyes were so full of love. I could see they really wanted to be together. Why wouldn't they be? They belong together. _

_"Then choose me now. Then let's go home." Yeah, do that. Do that now!_

_Leo just looked down at the hand she held out to him. He looked like he was ready to cry himself. "Don't you think I want to?"_

_"I don't know. And that's what scares me the most." I don't buy it! Of course, he wants to be with you! I wanted to scream. All she had to do was see the look on his face. That was definitely the look of a man desperately in love!!_

_Leo took her hand. "The Elders were wrong about us. They didn't think our love could survive but it did. Our love blessed us in ways they couldn't even imagine. __It gave you the strength that you needed to take over from Prue. It produced a baby with a greater future than any of us, and it made me…" Leo could not even finish the sentence. I felt so bad for both of them._

_Piper finished it for him. "An Elder." He is giving up true love to become an Elder? This is more screwed up then I thought. Damm, I came just in time!_

_"Our love is transcendent, Piper. It lifted me up so high that this was the only possible result. Being an Elder wasn't my destiny, but yet here I am because of you." _

_If he had not looked like he meant it, I would have told him to shove it. Those lines were just too good to be real. But I get the feeling that her husband must be extremely good and honestly meant every word._

_Piper was really crying now. "I can't just give up. I don't know how."_

_"You can't fight this. Not this." _

_It sounded like there is a lot more to Piper than some crazy lady, after all. Anyway, some kind of strange thing happened and she was suddenly completely dry, complete with a change of clothes and even a change of hair style. She now seemed so normal--still in pain, lots of pain, but normal._

_"How am I supposed to do this alone?" she asked._

_"I don't know. I'll always be watching over you."_

_"But you won't be there for Wyatt." Their little boy obviously means the world to both of them, just like I know I mean the world to my parents, even if Dad has always been gone more than he's been home. But at least he comes home when he can. Doesn't sound that like an Elder, Leo would get to come home at all and that sucks. Leo seemed about to lose it himself. "You're going to miss so much," Piper told him, her eyes tearing up._

_"I will never leave Wyatt's side," he managed to say. "He will always feel my presence. It's not the same as human love. He needs you for that."_

_"He's got me." And I bet he does. "And I hope that's enough. But what if it's not?"_

_Leo obviously could not stand to see her cry. "As an Elder, I have the power to take your pain away."_

_Now she looked mad again. "You can't make me forget you!" How could she possibly forget him? He looks like he is absolutely perfect, well almost! The whole Elder thing! Ewww!!_

_"No. Help you find peace."_

_They hugged then, and this glowing light poured over Piper. That must have been what caused her to change from a crying wreck to Ms. Sunshine-and-Rainbows. Her husband must have done something to her. But that crying wreck must still be inside her somewhere. I wonder if that is how I am supposed to help._


	15. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

_Like always, the retro only lasted a second of real time. God, that weirds me out every time. Piper let go of me and held me at arms' length to look me over._

_"Exactly like her," she said. _

_I took a look around to see if anyone else had come into the shop, then said, "You are a witch, right?"_

_She was a little surprised, but not at all standoffish. I know I would have split fast if somebody said that to me, which might have been why I said it. But all she did was smile again. "How did you know?" she asked, like we were best friends and still with that same bright smile._

_I told her that I'm a witch, too._

_"No kidding!" She hugged me again. I wish Dad would come in and hug me like that. I mean I know he loves me, but he still has some of that British reserve, even after being in this country for so long. Mom, of course, hugs me a lot, but this just seemed so weird. So much love from a complete, total stranger! Odd!!_

_"Listen, I have sisters who would love to see you --" She touched my face. I know, kinda weird, but I figure it'is just part of whatever her husband did to her, so I let it slide. "It's unbelievable. Can you come to dinner at my house tonight?" she asked. "My sisters will be there, and Wyatt will be there, and Chris might be there, and it'll be like a party, except without the alcohol, because that would be bad, and they can see you and get to know you and --"_

_I interrupted her because I figured she had run out of breath. I'll admit it was tough saying I would, because I'd love to be able to see Dad so much, but this will give him and Mom a chance to be alone. Who knows? Maybe some of their old magic will come back. Besides, Mom always taught me that innocents must come first, even before family. So since this is my very first innocent of my very own, I better see what I'm supposed to do to help her. So I smiled back and told her I would be glad to come. She wrote down her name and address and left without buying anything or even asking my name. I do not know exactly what I am supposed to do to help her, but I think if I get a chance to really talk to her at dinner, I can figure it out._

_Oh, best part for last. I was right that she was who I thought she was. Check this out. Her name is Piper __**Halliwell**__! A Charmed One. My very first innocent is a __**Charmed One**__! How freaking cool is that?_

Wow, huh, Chris? I never knew a thing about that meeting between your parents Up There until I read it in Rori's diary myself -- neither Piper nor Leo nor Rori herself ever told me, which tells you how good Rori is at keeping secrets and how badly she agrees with me that we should let you know what happened back then.

So of course, Paige and I had no idea what had happened and were surprised when Piper came home, even bubblier and more excited than usual. "You'll never believe who I met!" she cried.

"Who's that?" Paige asked, curious.

"One of our cousins!"

"Cousins?" I asked. "I didn't know we had any cousins. I thought Mom was an only child."

Paige grinned. "Yeah, but Grams had how many marriages? She could be a half-cousin or something."

"No," Piper insisted, "She has to be a direct cousin, because guess what! She looks just like Prue!"

"What!" I cried.

"Yep. She's only a teenager and she looks just like Prue did when she was that age!" Then she laughed. "Minus the metal mouth!" joking about the fact that Prue once had braces.

Paige and I looked at each other skeptically. "That's what caught my attention," Piper continued, completely oblivious to our doubts.

"Where did you meet this _cousin_?" I asked, suspiciously.


	16. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN**

Piper didn't even notice the tone in my voice. She just gaily replied, "At that new herb shop I was telling you about. Her family owns it, and she was working there."

"And how did you find out about this new herb shop?" Paige asked, jumping on my thought wagon.

"Oh, I read about it somewhere or another, I don't remember. But don't worry, she's really one of us, even if she isn't a Charmed One or a Halliwell. You'll see tonight."

"Tonight??!!" I cried. "What do you mean by tonight?"

"I invited her over for dinner," Piper replied matter-of-factly..

"You, what!" cried Paige. "You throw a fit when I had my best friend Glen over, and now you are just inviting any total stranger here!" she whined. "No fair!"

"That is a wonderful idea!" exclaimed Piper, getting even bubblier, if such a thing was possible. "Invite Glen over too!"

"What, you are missing the point!" cried Paige, exasperated. "We can't have total strangers in the Manor," and again she tried to get her point across.

"I told you, we _do_ know her!" Piper insisted. "She's just like Prue! You'll see! Now I have to go and make a special dinner to welcome our cousin! How does lasagna sound tonight?"

"Fattening," I moaned.

"Delicious," Paige moaned in delight, rubbing her tummy. I grimaced at her and she smirked sheepishly back at me, laughing, "Well, orbing does burn of lots of extra calories."

"Sure, rub it in," I muttered under my breath as I watched Piper skip along to the kitchen. I turned to look back at Paige. "This isn't good."

She nodded. "No, this isn't good at all. It could be a demon disguising herself to look like Prue!"

I nodded. "Just what I was thinking. But how do we find out, and how do we convince Piper?"

And giving a heavy sigh, knowing we had no choice in the matter, we both yelled out, _"Chris!"_


	17. Chapter 18

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

As usual, Chris started in on us just as soon as he appeared. "Hey, I was just about to come get you. I think I've found a demon who --"

I cut him off before he could lay yet another problem on us. "Nope, this time we have a demon for you."

Chris frowned and listened as we told him everything.

"So, what do you think?" I asked when we had finished. "Any long-lost cousins in our future?"

I half-expected him to get tight-lipped since I'd asked about the dreaded F-word, but he just shook his head. "Not that I remember."

"It's too much of a coincidence," Paige insisted.

"So, you're thinking what?" Chris asked. "A shape-shifter?"

"Yeah. I mean, what better way to take us off-guard than to come in as a Prue look-alike?" Paige put in.

Chris nodded, then struck on another idea. "And if she played nice long enough for everyone to trust her, none of you would defend yourself from her." For the first time he truly looked happy, excited. "She could be the one! We should check the Book--"

"Now wait!" I cried out, for something else had hit me. "Before we get all potion-happy, let's consider the possibility that Piper could be right. I grant you, it's remote, but, I mean . . . she may be acting a little nuts right now, but that doesn't mean she's stupid."

"Are you saying we should let her come to dinner?" Paige asked in disbelief.

I shook my head. "I'm just saying that we need to make sure we're not blowing up an innocent witch."

It was a relief to see that they both understood my point. "So what do you propose we do?" Chris asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, test her somehow."

"How?" Paige demanded. "If there were a potion to test for demons, we'd use it all the time."

"Then we test her for humanity," I answered. I had just thought of a pretty fantastic plan, if I do say so myself. "What if we made an alum-based potion and sorta slipped it in her drink? It'll make a human strangle, but a demon wouldn't be affected."

"Alum? Like to clean algae?" Chris asked the question that was apparently on Paige's mind too.

"Didn't anybody ever watch Bugs Bunny? The one with the opera singer and Bugs gave him alum instead of water, and his head shrank and his voice got really tiny?"

Now, I know you've seen it, nephew mine, and laughed right along with me, even though Chris and Paige looked at me like I'd gone about as nuts as Piper.

"Wait, you want to poison her to see if she's human?" Paige demanded. "Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose?"

I waved it off. "No, no. If she gets strangled, we'll just whack her on the back, and that's the end of it. But if she's a demon . . ."

"Then nothing will happen, and you can vanquish her." Chris nodded his approval, like we really needed it. "Sounds good. Hop to it."

OOOO! I _almost_ had words with him then, telling us to hop to it like we were his little trained monkeys. My mouth even opened, and my comeback was ready, but I was so not in the mood to waste my breath. Besides, I didn't know how long the testing and vanquishing potions would take to brew, so there was no time to waste either. Instead, I just grabbed his arm and made sure he hopped right along with us, even if it was only to sit around and watch and gripe and tell us to hurry up, while both Paige and I rolled our eyes and did our best to ignore him.

Piper spent the rest of the day in the kitchen or cleaning the downstairs, so we were free to brew both potions without her knowing. Still, to keep her from getting suspicious (not like she would have, with the mood she was in), we went down every so often to check on her or to give offers of help that we knew she'd always refuse. An hour before dinner, though, she called us all down because there was one thing we could do.

"You taste this." She handed me a spoonful of her tomato soup. "And you taste this." She gave some potato and broccoli soup to Paige.

"Why did you make two kinds of soup, Piper?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"Well, I started thinking, what if she doesn't like lasagna? So I though we'd have soup too, just in case. But then I couldn't decide which to have, so I just made both."

All three of us nodded as though that made perfect sense, and she, of course, smiled when Paige and I told her both were good. Then she seemed to realize something. "Chris, you've never tasted my cooking, have you?" She sounded scandalized that she hadn't thought of this before.

"No, it's okay," Chris assured her. "I will tonight."

But Piper would have none of it. "Here." She surprised him by forcing a spoonful of potato and broccoli soup into his mouth.

It was always really very hard to read Chris Perry, but for some reason, something passed across his face when Piper put that soup in his mouth. I wasn't sure, but it looked _almost_ like sadness. He simply stared into the pot as he chewed.

"Well?" Piper asked.

He swallowed and gave one of those lopsided grins that usually annoyed me but somehow didn't this time. "Just like my mom used to make."

"Is that good?" she pressed.

He nodded. "Yeah," he answered quietly, then suddenly cleared his throat and became unreadable again. "It could use a little more pepper, though."

Piper took a bite for herself and considered it in her mouth. "You're right."

As she reached for the pepper grinder, Chris turned to Paige and me. "I gotta go, but I'll be back by dinner," he told us, then orbed out without another word.


	18. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

Paige and I just shrugged at each other and headed back upstairs to bottle our potions. We figured we'd never be able to figure out our new Whitelighter.

Wherever Chris went, he did make it back in time to meet us and go over the plan once more. We all felt as prepared as we were going to get. That is, until Piper opened the front door.

She hadn't been kidding when she said this girl looked like Prue. I thought I was in a time warp for a second when I saw that face. Paige grabbed my arm; it must have been a shock for her, too, to see a carbon copy of our sister's pictures that she'd studied so often suddenly appear in the flesh.

"Hey, snap out of it," Chris demanded in a whisper in our ears. "If we're right, that's the face you'll be vanquishing in a minute."

He succeeded in refocusing our attention enough that we were able to go through introductions as normal. She told us her name, and then Piper ushered her into the dining room ahead of us.

"Rori Bowen," Chris said, like it sounded familiar. If he'd studied us in the future like he said he had, it was no surprise that he'd know the name.

"Bowen was the name of one of our ancestors," I explained, remembering the three-cousin witches from the time I switched places with an evil past-self. "If she's a demon, she does her homework."

A look of recognition spread across his face at my explanation. "I think she's not a --"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence because Piper had called to us to join her, and Paige and I had already started to walk away from him.

"There's wine for most of us," Piper was saying to Rori as she set Wyatt down in his playpen in the conservatory. "It'd be slightly illegal to give you any, but we have ginger ale, like Paige will have, or juice, or water, or --"

"Got any soda?" Rori asked like a typical teenager.

"Yeah, a couple of kinds. Come and see what you want."

"How will it react to carbonation?" Paige whispered to me from the corner of her mouth, obviously referring to the potion.

"I don't know," I whispered back.

"We can't let her have it if we don't know." Paige sounded a tad panicky.

I had to think fast. "Um, Piper," I called to stop her before she went into the kitchen. "We're all out of sodas."

Piper gave the closest thing to a frown that I'd seen since Leo left. "We can't be. I bought some this morning."

"Yeah, but we were really . . . thirsty," Paige finished lamely.

"Oh, come on, I bet I can find one," Piper laughed and pulled Rori along with her toward the kitchen.

I glared at Paige. "Do something!"

Chris tried to get a word in. "Guys, I'm telling you--"

Paige ignored him and bit her lip as she held out her arms. "Sodas," she said, and suddenly, a couple of bottled six-packs orbed into her arms. She shoved them toward Chris. "Hide them."

He rolled his eyes and quickly tossed the bottles behind a chair in the sitting room. I was pretty sure one of them busted open when they landed, but we couldn't do anything about that now.

"I could have sworn . . ." Piper said when she came back with Rori and a pitcher of water instead. "You guys really need to cut back on the sugar," she laughed. "Well, what are you all huddled up for? Come sit."

Paige and I sat on one side of the table, Rori and Chris on the other side, and Piper presided at the head, with Wyatt in his high chair on one side of her and cutie-pie you sitting in your infant seat that was resting on a chair on the other side. Piper played the perfect hostess, ladling soup or slicing lasagna for each of us. Of course, nephew mine, you know that your mom's spinach lasagna is simply to die for, but Rori went with the potato and broccoli soup after Chris said that was his choice (apparently, your favorite of Piper's soups was a hit with him, too). For a couple of minutes, the only sounds were those of eating.

The silence gave me a chance to really look at Rori, and I had to admit that if she was a demon, she was doing a really good impression of a teenager with a huge crush on our new Whitelighter. She blushed when she asked Chris to pass the salt, and got even redder when their hands touched in the passing. The flush brought out the physical difference between this girl and Prue, at least, and helped me keep her separate from my dead sister. If she was truly a demon, I couldn't help admiring her for not making herself look _exactly_ like Prue--that would be too obvious. As you well know, Rori's hair has a more reddish cast than Prue's pure black, and her eyes are a brilliant shade of emerald green, unlike Prue's ice-blue ones. While looking at her, I found myself glancing across the table at Chris, who seemed oblivious to Rori's raging hormones, and suddenly noticed that he had really nice eyes, too. Looking him over, I decided that he had pretty nice everything, for that matter. _What? _I had absolutely _no_ idea where that thought came from, and quickly shook it out of my head. There was absolutely no reason for me to think that way. I took a big gulp of my wine and thanked God when Paige finally broke the ice.

"So, Rori, Piper tells us you're a witch. Any powers?"

I rolled my eyes. My little sister really could've been a little more subtle with the question. I was afraid that maybe she'd tipped off our demon when Rori seemed a little taken aback by the abruptness of it. She glanced uneasily at Piper. "Um, I kinda get these visions, you know, like of the past and stuff. Mom says it's called retronition, but I just call them retroes. Mom gets them, too. So did her mom. So it's kinda like a Bowen family tradition."

"So it's sorta like Phoebe's power," Chris commented. I thought he was really sweet to chime in and make Rori feel more welcome. What was I thinking _that_ for?

"Oh, you see the past, too?" Rori asked me.

"Well, sometimes, but mostly I see the future. Premonitions."

"Oh, my God, that is so cool! I would kill for that power!"

_Anyone realize what's happening with Phoebe? Remember that this takes place after "Oh, My Goddess!" and before "Valhalley of the Dolls!"_


	19. Chapter 20

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

Paige choked on her lasagna, and I had to pat her on the back. She was doing _such_ a bang-up job making our suspicions obvious. I downed the rest of my wine and poured another glass.

"Our families are actually related, you know," Rori told us when Paige was calm, and Piper grinned from ear-to-ear to have her theory confirmed. "Mom showed me our family tree. We have the same great-great-great grandmother, and our great grandmothers, who would've been cousins, actually owned a speakeasy together back in the 20's--right here, in fact. Though our grandparents had a falling out and it must have been a helluva fight. My grandma wrote on our tree not to associate with any of those cousins--nothing but . . . Well, it wasn't nice. But you guys seem okay to me."

"And you've kept the name all these years?" I asked, even as I was snickering at the idea of Grams having a fight with her second-cousins. Doing some quick figuring, I realized that Mom and Rori's mother would be third-cousins, making us fourth-cousins. Either that or this demon had _really _done her homework!

"Oh, yeah. Bowen's a big deal. I mean, girl power all the way, right?"

It was hard not to smile at her enthusiasm, I could give her that. Of course, the wine seemed to be loosening me up anyway.

"Wow, I can not believe you guys actually get to hang out with your Whitelighter," Rori said. "I mean, not that I would want to hang out with ours. He's all bald and fat and gross."

"Well, there's nothing gross about our Chris," I laughed, and got glares from both him and Paige. Why was I saying this stuff?

"Oh, Chris isn't around all that much," Piper said cheerfully. "He's usually out trying to find demons for us to vanquish. He's here from the future, although we're not quite sure why."

Chris put his head in his hand at Piper's divulgence. I knew how much he didn't want just anyone to find out about him--and if she was truly a demon, she would be able to report to the other demons!.

"From the future?" Rori sounded excited. "Oh, that's just so cool! What's it like? Do you know me there? Am I famous?"

Chris seemed to be trying very hard not to tick off the questions on his fingers; he must have known they'd be coming as soon as Piper slipped up. I wasn't all that focused on his annoyance, though.

"Chris won't say anything about the future to any of us," I told her, and suddenly felt really turned on by the mystery. "Believe me, I've tried just about everything to get something from him." And, oh, my _God_, nephew mine, you will not believe what I did then. Beneath the table, I slipped my foot out of my shoe and slid it up the side of Chris's leg. He literally jumped in his chair, which startled Rori into spilling her water.

While he tried to help mop up the mess from the table, I stared feeling really, _really_ nauseated at what I had just done. I reached for my wine to down some more for my nerves, then thought better of it. I figured it might be a good idea to stay away from that particular vintage since it had to be some _strong_ stuff to make me act like that.

"Here, let me pour you some more." Piper picked up the water pitcher.

"No," Paige stopped her. "I think I see something floating in there. I should just run some more." She took the pitcher from her, but I took it from Paige.

"I'll do it," I said, because, boy, I needed to get away from that table.

My thinking seemed to clear up a bit once I was in the kitchen. I emptied the pitcher, ran some more water over the ice, and added the potion to test Rori, which, after all, was supposed to be the whole point of this dinner fiasco. I took a couple of deep breaths before I turned back to the dining room. Standing in my way was the very last person I wanted to see.


	20. Chapter 21

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE**

"Chris, I am so sorry," I started to tell him, but he spoke over me.

"Phoebe, before we go back in there, I want to make something clear. You have . . . _no idea_ what it means for you to think of me like that, but I really should tell you I'm not interested. Not even remotely."

I think I should have felt insulted by that last bit. I'm a sexy lady now. Just imagine me back then. But instead, I was panicking. "I'm not either!" I defended myself. "I swear, Chris, it's not me. It's the wine or something . . . A spell!" I hit on something, anything, else to blame. "She could have me under a spell."

"I really don't think--"

But I was already moving past him with the potion-laced water and a clear mission. "OOOO! If this proves she's a demon, I'm gonna nail her to the wall for making me do that!"

I was sure I could do better now that I knew something was up. But just as I went to fill Rori's glass, Chris followed me from the kitchen and walked around the table to his seat, and I just had to watch him move. Oh, did he look good from the back view! Only when Paige yelled out my name did I realize I was pouring water on the table instead of in Rori's glass. Paige glared at me as she grabbed the pitcher and did the job right as I slunk back to my chair and glared at Rori. I was just raring for her to be a demon. Of all the people to make me feel horny for, why'd it have to be Chris??!!

"Sorry about that," Paige apologized for me. "Halliwells tend to be a little clumsy."

"No problem. I spill stuff all the time," Rori laughed. "Except for potions. Nearly blew myself up once when I spilled some, so I'm extra careful now." She lifted her glass and saluted us with it. "So I guess it'is good for everybody that this is not a potion."

I perked up at that--did she know what we were doing, and was she mocking us about it? But before I could get good and excited, Rori took a long drink from her water. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and I reached for the vanquishing potion in my pocket. Then she began coughing and choking, and Chris and Piper rushed to help her.

Paige looked surprised and relieved, but I admit that I wasn't exactly thrilled. I mean it was good that she was human and telling the truth, but it also meant that she hadn't put a spell on me. I don't care how deep down I looked, I couldn't really think of Chris Perry in that way, not since I gave up my powers as the goddess of love. He was simply much too young for me, period. I've always preferred men who were older than I was, men like Cole or Jason or Jonathan, and Chris Perry was at least ten years younger than me. So there's no way I could be attracted sexually to him, no matter how adorably cute he was.

It had to be the wine. I pushed it away, swearing off all alcohol for a while, and took a big drink of Paige's ginger ale instead. She started to protest, but before the words were even out of her mouth, the disaster that had been dinner was topped off with a demon attack.

We all leaped to our feet when he appeared, and for a second, he seemed surprised to see so many people. The he regained his focus and looked toward Rori. He was going to have to fight his way through us to get to her, especially now that we knew she was an innocent.

"Piper, blow him up!" I yelled as I moved to place myself between him and Rori. It was the least I could do after wishing I could vanquish her.

Piper tried her power, but it did nothing more than make the demon mad. He sent an energy ball in our midst, causing us all to scatter to the floor. I pushed Rori back down when she tried to stand, hoping to keep her covered. In the process, I was hit with a premonition so brief and jumbled, I didn't have a chance to straighten it all out before my thoughts were back on the present, where Paige tried throwing the vanquishing potion that had originally been meant for Rori. That didn't work either. Rori finally squirmed away from me and sat upright and began to chant:

_"Demon born of night__  
__Filled with all his might__  
__Cannot stand to fight.__  
__Take him from my sight."_

The demon flinched, but instead of being vanquished, sent another energy ball right at Rori. She ducked just in time and rolled under the table for cover. "Dammit!" she swore. "I can't do this alone! I need Mom!"


	21. Chapter 22

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO**

Rori looked scared, but then an idea seemed to come to her. "Phoebe! You say it!"

So I chanted the short, and--might I add--stylistically-lacking, spell, and since I'm a Charmed One, it worked like, well, a charm.

"Not a bad spell," Paige complimented Rori with a smile.

Rori shrugged. "It was just a simple Hellbender demon. Just takes two witches, or one Charmed One, apparently," she explained, and then catching Paige's impressed expression, blushed beet-red before adding, "Oh, Mom makes me study our Book of Shadows along with my homework. She calls it my 'witchwork'. She figures since we can't really protect ourselves with our retroes, we better be able to use potions and spells."

Piper looked around and grinned. "I think I like your Book. No clean-up," and she grinned at the lack of demon goo. "All right!"

"It's not over yet," I warned. "When I shoved Rori out of the way, I had a premonition of what looked like Shax, just more, I don't know, more flowy and orangy. And there was a woman who looked like Rori but older and a man with red hair--" I stopped. I had seen this man lying dead on the floor.

Rori's eyes widened in panic. "Mom! Dad! I gotta go home!"

I put my hands on her shoulders. "Hold on, you're staying here," I insisted. "We'll take care of this."

She shook my hands off, her green eyes blazing. "If you think I am going to sit around while my parents are in trouble, you are out of your freakin' mind!" she screamed, giving us our first indication of that temper we now know her for. "Besides, you don't even know where I live."

"She's got a point," Paige admitted. "I can orb, but I can't orb blind."

"Wait a minute. You're not seriously going to go in there half-cocked?" Chris protested. This from the guy who came to the past not even knowing what demon he wanted to vanquish.

"What are we supposed to do?" I demanded. "Just let the demon kill them?"

Chris sighed and looked at the ground for a second. I figured it was just to keep himself calm, because when he spoke again, all feeling went out of his voice. "You don't even know what you're up against. You have no potion, no spell--"

"So we go in, get Rori's parents, and come back here for research," Paige compromised. "But, uh, just in case the demon's already there, you should probably come, too," she told Chris. "We may need some healing."

Chris opened his mouth to say something, apparently thought better of it, and came out instead with, "What about Wyatt?"

We looked to Piper, who took our meaning and called out, "Eve!"

A green flash of light later, Piper's elf nanny appeared in that same marmish skirt suit she always wore, but with a pissier expression than she normally had.

"I was on a date, you know," she grumbled sourly. "You can't keep calling me and expecting me to show up at the drop of a hat. I have a life, too."

"We just need you to watch him for a couple of minutes," Paige coaxed.

"I'm charging overtime for this. Double overtime."

We ignored her and turned to Chris. "Better, Mr. Obsessive-Compulsive?" Paige asked sarcastically. "Now, let's go." She grabbed me and Piper, who held Rori's hand, and orbed.

As the world disappeared and I became orbs, I could barely hear Chris rant to himself, "God, I _hate_ this!" before he followed our trail.

When we arrived, Rori's parents were just sitting down to a dinner of their own. Mrs. Bowen jumped up much as we had when our demon showed up, but Rori stopped her before she could take any further action.

"Mom, Dad," she screamed, running towards them. "We gotta get out of here! _Now!_"


	22. Chapter 23

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE**

No sooner did Rori say this than the demon of my premonition appeared, and unlike our demon, he didn't let the presence of a few extra people faze him. He smirked at us, reminding me so much of Shax that I felt sick, then raised his arms. In an instant, the room was engulfed in flames, just as if it had been drenched in gasoline. It was looking exactly like my premonition, so I knew we had to do something fast.

Paige must have been thinking the same thing, because she orbed over to Rori and her parents to act almost as a shield. I saw Chris near them, too, looking on at our impending fight almost oblivious to the flames around us.

"Chris!" I yelled to get his attention. "Get them out of here!"

He just looked from me to our innocents, and then back to me, and I got the sinking feeling that he'd frozen up, much as Paige had when she saw a car fire that reminded her of her adopted parents' death. I couldn't help wondering if it was reminding our Whitelighter of something from his past.

But before I could do anything to snap him out of it, the fire demon sent a blast of energy in our innocents' direction, and if Paige hadn't been right there to orb them out of the way, it would have been all over for them.

Paige emerged from another room, having deposited the family safely, and joined me and Piper. I'd had an idea, since this guy looked so much like Shax, but with no time to explain, I grabbed their hands and just started chanting the spell, knowing my sisters would join in.

_"Demon filled with ire__  
__Trying to kill us with your fire__  
__No longer may you dwell__  
__Death takes you with this spell!"__  
_  
We chanted it together three times and then the demon writhed and exploded in demon fashion, and Rori, who had followed us, cast a quick spell to put out the flames. The house was still smoky, so we got Chris to orb me and Piper home while Paige brought our innocents to the Manor.

We were a little while explaining everything to Sylvia Bowen and her husband, James, but having magic in their lives as well, it was a lot easier than it might have been. I couldn't help thinking that Sylvia looked a lot like an older Rori, so she looked like what Prue may have looked like had she had a chance to grow older. It also hit me that Sylvia was the same age that Mom would've been had she lived. It seemed wierd to think that, since as you know, when we see her ghost, Mom always looked to be about our age. Somehow having Sylvia, Mom's second cousin, in the Manor both hurt and yet felt comforting, both in the same time. If only the look on James' face didn't look similar to the look on Dad's whenever he knew that being Charmed had put us in danger.

"You're welcome to stay here for a couple of days," Piper said at last with a smile, and Paige and I agreed.

James shook his head. "I'm heading back to Cambridge tomorrow," and he sounded like he couldn't get away quick enough.

"Tomorrow?" and I could tell how upset Rori seemed at the apparent change in plans.

"But --" and for the first time since Leo's promotion, Piper sounded a little bit upset.

James shook his head, stopping her words. "Uh, do you have a lavatory where I can wash some of this off?" He motioned to the soot on his face and hands.

"Upstairs," Paige directed him.

As soon as he was gone, we all stared at Sylvia, who was looking after him with regret in her eyes.

"James has never been able to get used to the magic," she explained softly, and left the explanation at that. It was really all we needed, because your grandpa was the same way--loving us, but frightened by the constant threat of attack.

"I just want to know if there are any more Shax rip-offs out there," Paige growled. "Because I, for one, would like to get them all vanquished and out of the way."

"And I want to know why they were after you guys," I told Sylvia, a question in my voice, but unwilling to tell her that the demon was specifically after her husband.

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out." She patted her Book of Shadows that she'd insisted had to come with her.

From the corner of the living room, I heard Chris sigh. He'd been sitting quietly over there this whole time, and while I usually wouldn't have minded silence from him, I could also imagine him beating himself up about what happened during the fire, and couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him, the way I did when I found out about Paige's adopted parents' death.

He looked up and saw me watching him, and must've seen the sympathetic look on my face because the thoughtful look was replaced by an irritated one. He was the world's worst at getting irritated easily. I take that back. When she's not acting LaLa Piper, your mom's got him beat. He came in second

Anyway, he got up then and told us he was headed back to P3 if we didn't need him, and before we could say one way or another, he left us. Sylvia looked at us questioningly and all we could do was shrug.


	23. Chapter 24

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR**

The rest of the night went by in what passed for peace at our house, at least for us sisters. Rori's family, apparently, was another story. Sylvia and James took my room while I bunked with Paige, but I don't think either of them slept. Late in the night, when I decided to head downstairs to find a nice couch where my dear sister couldn't hog the middle, I passed their room. And while there was no light coming from under the door, there was a sound of rapid-fire whispering that indicated an argument kept down to avoid waking anyone.

They were what woke me from the couch in the conservatory the next morning. I heard the front door creak open, and had just stood to see what was going on when Sylvia's voice came from the stairs.

"James," she called softly.

I saw him stop in the doorway, bow his head, and then turn toward her.

As she came near him, Sylvia glanced into the living room where Rori was sleeping, then stood silently facing James.

"Tell her I'll call when I get there," James said without looking at his wife. "And I'll call before we head out to the site, and if we find anything."

When she only nodded, he sighed and frowned as though he wasn't saying what he wanted to say. Then she touched his arm, and he finally looked at her, and that tough British stoicism that he'd apparently picked up over there along with traces of an accent started to melt away. "I do love you."

Sylvia smiled, though she seemed to be fighting back tears. "I know." She rubbed her hand up on his arm and naturally gravitated to give him a kiss. "Take care of yourself."

He cupped her face in his hand for a moment longer, and then he was gone. Sylvia stood with her hand on the door for a couple of seconds, then turned to see me standing like an insensitive idiot in the conservatoryr. But she only gave me a half-hearted "I'll be okay" smile, and walked passed me toward the kitchen.

And after reading Rori's diary, it looks like those two weren't the only ones to spend a sleepless night and see a gloomy morning. We didn't know it at the time, but Rori had wrestled with some confusing problems of her own. I'll let her tell about it:

_Mom and Dad are at it again. They haven't really said anything, since we're guests, but I can tell by the looks they give each other. I hate it when this stuff happens. Why did that thing have to wait to attack until Dad was back home, and excited that he's getting closer to proving Atlantis was real, and generally on top of the world? He always freaks out when demons attack. I hate this. I have to think of something else._

_Here's something good. Can you keep a secret? I met the perfect man today. Well, okay, he's not technically a man, he's a Whitelighter, but still, perfect. His name is Chris. I didn't get his last name. I need to get his last name. Do Whitelighters even have last names? We just know ours as George. Anyway, this new guy is an absolute hottie. I mean, hot like, well, I don't know what, but hot enough that I must find a way to keep him from going outside very much. Way too hot for other women to lay eyes on. It's a wonder the Halliwells haven't tried something with him. That one sister, Phoebe, I think actually did try something tonight, but he didn't go for her. I bet she's a slut._

Me here for a second, nephew mine. I try to keep in mind that sixteen is a very confusing age, so I can forgive Rori for that. Sorta. Back to her.

_Anyway, I want to know more about him. Piper said he's from the future, but he won't say anything about it, or about himself, which is very frustrating when you're checking a guy out. So I have a plan. I helped Piper with the dishes tonight, partially so I could see if I could figure out how I'm supposed to help her--zilch on that front--and partially so I could clear the table. While picking up the silverware, I slipped Chris's spoon in my pocket. I know, I know, pretty gross, but it's the only thing around here that I know for sure that he's touched, and, well, a gal's gotta to do what a gal's gotta do. I'm gonna try to force a retro off of it. I'm getting better at calling them, so maybe it will work._

_Okay, you know what? Scratch everything I just said. He may be hot, but he's a liar, a freaking liar. How do I know, you ask? I got my retro all right. And he lied. No, he didn't say anything, but that's the point. It's a lie of omission, and what an omission! I swear, I'm going to really tear into him him tomorrow._

That's not exactly what she did. Here's the next day's entry:

_So I was over-emotional last night. It's that time; I'm entitled._

_This morning wasn't much better, actually. Dad went back to England without even saying good-bye. That didn't help anything. And I waited around all morning for Chris to show up at the Manor, since Piper said he usually does to give them some new demon to vanquish. But he never came. I was so pissedd-off that I finally just asked Piper if I could borrow her SUV, and of course, her being all freaky happy, she said okay. _

_The keys to her club were with her car keys, which was just fine with me. That way I could just walk right in and tell Chris off, and he wouldn't have much choice but to listen. At least, that's what went through my head, since I didn't stop to think that he could orb out on me anytime he wanted. He didn't orb out, though, when I went down the stairs and yelled out his name before I saw him sitting at the bar. Just sitting, not drinking, not doing anything, but just sitting._

_I didn't realize then that he must have been thinking a lot about what had happened last night and wouldn't have cared it I did. I stomped up to him, glared at him and glared at him for a couple minutes, trying to find the right words to let him know what I thought of him._

_"What is it?" he finally asked.._

_"You wanted us to die last night!"_


	24. Chapter 25

_**Author's note: **__Just like earlier, a lot of this comes from Scifi's own "The Ties That Binds."_

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE**

_"What?!" Chris stood up and walked over to me. _

_"I saw it!" I screamed. "You were a kid, and Piper was showing you her family tree, and there we were--James Thomas, Syliva Bowen and Aurora Bowen, with yesterday's date written as our death date!"_

_He looked like I had just slapped him, but that only got me madder. "You weren't scared last night! You were trying to stop the sisters from saving us!! You wanted my family dead __, you--" and I really did slap him. Hard. _

_But just as my hand hit his face, I got another retro, or maybe a bunch of them, I don't know--there were just all of these flashes. There was a man, and he was walking into his living room where his wife was getting ready for work, and he just shot her down in cold blood. And he turned to walk down a hall, and he pounded on a locked door, yelling "Susie! Annie! Open this door!", and then I saw two little girls huddled together crying and then I saw the man again! Oh! That man, he shot himself when they wouldn't open the door! And then there was Chris, standing in an alley, looking like he was going to puke. When I came out of the retro, I felt like I could puke myself._

_Seeing the look on Chris' face told me that unlike my usual retroes, rather than only taking a second of real-time, each scene must've taken a second, so he knew I'd had a retro. "What did you see?" he asked with his hand still holding the place where I'd hit him. I couldn't answer for a minute, and he took me by the shoulders. "Rori, it's important! What did you see?"_

_"That man. He killed her," I whispered. "And he tried to kill his little girls. And when he couldn't, he shot himself."_

_Chris let go of me and sat down hard on a stool. He closed his eyes, and he looked so tired, so hurt, so angry at himself, that I forgot I was mad and sat next to him. "I don't understand. How was it your fault?"_

_"I can't tell you."_

_I shook my head."You're forgetting what my power is. I can force it if you don't tell me, and I want to know. I have to know, so I'll understand why you did what you did last night."_

_He sighed and held the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. "It was before I became the sisters' Whitelighter. I had been here for a while before they met me so I could keep an eye on them and prepare for what I came back to do. There was this guy, and one night when he was drunk, I saved him from getting hit by a truck. And I took him home, where he killed his wife, and tried to kill his daughters and himself. End of story."_

_"But you couldn't have known--"_

_"No, I couldn't. That's the thing. I'm from the __**future**__ and I couldn't see it coming. And now I have no idea what I've changed. If I hadn't been there, Pete would have died like he was supposed to, and Maureen would have raised her girls like she was supposed to. And--"_

_"But, Chris--"_

_"Don't you see?" he demanded. "Everything I do can change the future in ways I don't want." Now all emotions left his voice and very firmly, he stated. "I came here to change only one thing. One. Everything else…"_

_"So you did want us to die last night," I stated in a small voice._

_"No! I just… I don't know. Don't you get it? Your being alive changes the future. For good or bad, I don't know. And I don't like not knowing."_

_I thought about it for a minute, and I could start to see his point. "My mom says everything happens for a reason--"_

_He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I've heard that before," like it was something he had heard a lot and didn't want to hear again._

_"Well, maybe it's true. Maybe our not dying last night will be something that helps you change the thing you want changed."_

_He nodded slowly. "I hope so." He smiled a little at me, and I smiled back. He has a really great smile._

_"Hey, so you knew Piper when you were little?" I asked eagerly._

_He fidgeted in his seat and stared out at the tables in the club. "Um, yeah. I sort of grew up in the neighborhood. I was at her house all the time."_

_"Wow! So you must have died really recently…or, anyway, really close to when you came to the past."_

_"Huh?"_

_"To become a Whitelighter and all. You must have died really young."_

_"Oh. Yeah."_

_"How'd you die?"_

_He gave me a look with those perfect green eyes. Wish mine were even half as sage-green as his are. "Rori." I love how he said my name. Kind of like Ricky says "Lucy" on those old reruns._

_"Sorry, tactless." I hopped off my stool and headed for the stairs, but he stopped me by calling my name.._

_When I turned around, he was holding the bridge of his nose again. "Rori, um, I don't know what kind of control you have over your retroes. But if you could try not to see anything else about me or the future, that would be great. You know, future consequences. Like I said, I want to change one thing and one thing only, and if you tell the sisters about any retro you get off me, they may do something that will change it. Or if you do happen to have one, just keep it between us. Don't tell anybody else. Can you do that for me?"_

_Did you catch that? He said "for me." You see, already there's chemistry. "Sure," I said, and left. But you know, I've been thinking, it can't hurt to try and force little retroes that won't matter one way or another about the future. If there about stuff he's doing in the present rather than the future, it couldn't hurt, right? You know, tiny things like watching Chris in the shower..._

I'll spare you the rest of Rori's entry, because she could get a bit overexcited in the fantasy department. In any case, she kept her promise, because she had other--and very important-- visions that none of us knew anything about until she gave me her diary, so I could share this stuff with you. Just wait until I tell you about them!

**THE END**

_**Author's Notes: **Originally, Chapter Twenty-Six would've started the "Phoebeization" of "Valhalley of the Dolls", which would've begun the next day. However, I've decided to end this one here because there seems to be more interest in the parts of the story that weren't actually shown during the episodes rather than the actual episodes, themselves. I may come back and post them as separate stories later, but for now, I'm going to hop directly to the next part based on a fanfic--"The Power of Three Wyatts", based on Aurora Nightstar's fantastic fic by the same name. Before that, Phoebe would've continued to to tell her version of Season Six, with an occasional Rori-retro to provide Chris Perry's POV , through "Sleepy Halliwell," where she reveals Chris Perry is Chris Halliwell. She then revisits earlier episodes to fill in some blanks, drawing on a journal Chris Perry kept in hopes that Bianca would see it in the future. During her retroes, Rori sees the diamond ring that Chris always keeps in his pocket, one that Rori is positive that Chris has bought for her, Rori, although he has never done anything to actually make her think that he returns her feelings (he doesn't, but good luck telling her!)_

_This first part of Phoebe's letter culminates in a diary entry from Rori describing the retro she received from Chris describing the events of "Chris-Crossed" when Bianca comes back. You can imagine Rori's reaction towards finding out that the diamond ring is Bianca's, a Phoenixassassin, and not hers! She immediately blames everything that Chris has done wrong on, as she calls her, "Miss Kill-a-Lot", certain that she's the one who taught Chris how to kill. After all her Chris never would have done anything wrong without Bianca's tutoring, so it's all her fault, right? Her retro also allows her to see who Chris Perry really is. She calls Chris on it, but he again gets her to promise not to tell the sisters or Leo his true identity. Still very jealous of Bianca, but still harboring her huge teenaged crush on Chris--who might be a cousin, but after all, he's a very distantly-related cousin (fourth-cousin, once removed)--Rori agrees. She is determined to win him from Bianca, certain that Chris really loves her, Rori, and not Bianca. As Phoebe would say, naturally Rori is dislusional!_

_I hope you've enjoyed this fic and enjoyed our Rori and will decide to read "The Power of Three Wyatts", starting tomorrow._


End file.
